Who should be New Zealand’s next Police Commissioner?

For more see the NZ Herald here.

26 February 2024: Two murders of dairy workers in a decade and close to 100,000 complaints of retail crime in 2022 tells us what we all know. Something has gone disastrously wrong as we await 2023 data.

With Police Commissioner Andrew Coster’s five-year term coming to an end in 2025, thought must turn to his successor. We must be big enough to look beyond the usual police line of succession, and we’d like to throw a British bobbie into the mix. Chief Constable Stephen Watson of Greater Manchester Police turned around a failing police force into arguably Britain’s best in just two years. The secret? Sweating the small stuff. Every crime is to be investigated, no matter how “small”, and police must attend every burglary: that sends a message to the public the police have their back, and to burglars that they won’t get away with it.